FR EE
FRIDAY, JULY 9, 2004
Volume 3, Issue 205
Santa Monica Daily Press A newspaper with issues
DAILY LOTTERY
Past Midnight: Local bookstore gone for good
FANTASY 5 17 23 27 32 33
DAILY 3 Daytime: Evening:
610 484
DAILY DERBY 1st: 2nd: 3rd:
03 Hot Shot 10 Solid Gold 12 Lucky Charms
RACE TIME:
1:49.90
Born in Venice, liberal bookstore was 34 years old
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
BY JOHN WOOD
BY CHUCK SHEPARD
Daily Press Staff Writer
■ South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, intending to score some publicity in his battle against what he believes is irresponsible spending by the state legislature, held two small pigs in his arms at a photo opportunity outside the House chamber in May, telling reporters that one was named "pork" and the other "barrel." Before the event ended, both pigs had soiled the governor's suit jacket and the elegant carpet at the State House, forcing Sanford's press secretary and speechwriter to pull quick duty with cleanser and paper towels. ■ Breakaway Mormon polygamist John Daniel Kingston, testifying in May at his child-abuse trial in Salt Lake City (he had been charged with threatening to beat two teenage daughters if they got their ears pierced), strongly asserted his devotion as a parent, despite having to keep up with numerous children from his reported 14 wives. However, when asked to name the 13 children he had with one of the wives, he struggled through nine names before giving up.
QUOTE OF THE DAY “Pride and dignity would belong to women if only men would leave them alone.”
INDEX Horoscopes 2
Obituary SM nurse killed in car accident
3
Surf Water temperature: 66°
3
Opinion Resident groups don’t represent
4
Entertainment Riding Hollywood waves
8
National Mayor clears homeless camp
10
Comics Tickle your funny bone
12
Classifieds Get some class
Brownley withdraws from council race By Daily Press Staff
EGYPTIAN PROVERB
Cancer, out and about
DOWNTOWN — In the end, the most difficult thing for staffers at the Midnight Special Bookstore was sales were picking up — just not quickly enough to cover the bills. Even sadder for some customers of the popular independent bookstore was that they’d only recently discovered the shop’s new location on Second Street. It opened there last winter, after being pushed off the Third Street Promenade by a spike in rent. It didn’t last for long. After half a year at its new location, the 34-year-old liberal bookstore permanently closed its doors Thursday afternoon, ending a six-day, 50-percent-off sale that left its shelves half bare, and its longtime
13
Julia Brownley has decided not to run for City Council, she announced Thursday. She will hold her seat on the local school board until 2006, when she plans to again consider a run at the council. “While my family and many community leaders and friends have encouraged me to run for City Council, I believe at this time I can serve Brownley the city the best by continuing my leadership on the school board,” Brownley said in a statement. She said her decision came after a lot of personal deliberation. Brownley has served on the school board since 1994. She won the most votes among the six candidates who ran for school board in 2002 and has been a Santa Monica resident for 21 years. “I will continue to advocate for progressive policies in the areas of education, social justice, the environment and open space, housing, the arts, and continuing to ensure the unique qualities and amenities of living in Santa Monica,” she said. With Brownley’s withdrawal, the group of candidates preparing to challenge the four incumbents for their council seats includes Matt Dinolfo, Jerry Rubin
Service Directory Move in tomorrow
employees exhausted and jobless. “People are coming in to say good-bye, and I’m not handling it very well, I’m not handling it very well at all,” said owner Margie Ghiz, a Sunset Park resident who first volunteered for the political bookstore in the ’70s. “I might just leave. It’s very hard. “People do not believe we’re closing, they think we’re moving. They really believe that we’re permanent,” she added. “I just hope our ideas are permanent, because the store doesn’t matter as much as what we believe in. Too many things need fixing, and they aren’t going to get fixed by themselves ... We have to do that. For that, I’m sad — that we’re not going to be part of it.”
See BROWNLEY, page 7 15
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
John Wood/Daily Press
Started in a tiny Venice shop in 1970 on the See BOOKSTORE, page 6
Worker Olin Tezcatlipoca on Thursday afternoon closes the door at Midnight Special Bookstore on Second Street for the last time.
Bond proposal advances BY SHRADDHA R. JAISWAL Special to the Daily Press
Santa Monica College board members voted unanimously on Wednesday to move forward on the $175 million bond proposal that voters could see on the November ballot. However, board members made it clear that the approval should not be construed as a vote in support of placing it in front
of voters. The board’s official vote on the proposal is expected in August. “I hope that a vote tonight is not tantamount to saying ‘yes’ to next month, and I wouldn’t want my vote to be perceived that way,” said Carole Currey, vice-chair of the SMC board. Although the board approved writing the language for the ballot measure, some members expressed concerns echoed by See SCHOOLS, page 7
Transient falls to his death By Daily Press Staff
A homeless man fell to his death over the holiday weekend after he rolled off the Palisades Bluffs and onto the Pacific Coast Highway. The man’s death marked the second unnatural death of a local transient in four days. It’s unclear whether the death was an accident or suicide. A witness notified Santa Monica Police at 7:22 a.m. Saturday after he was drawn to 33-year-old David Villanueva’s falling body by dust rising from the bluffs. Villanueva fell facedown in the northbound lane of the PCH’s 1200 block. He was pronounced dead at 8:27 a.m. at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. David Campbell, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Coroner, said the
coroner’s office would conduct an autopsy in the next few days. Villanueva’s exwife was notified of his death, Campbell added. The last she heard of Villanueva’s whereabouts, he was staying in a homeless shelter in the Pasadena area. The transient found murdered on June 30 near the entrance to the YMCA parking lot on Sixth Street has been identified as Scott Dishmon. The 35-year-old man was found dead at 5:57 a.m., and police are investigating the homicide. No suspects have been identified. Dishmon suffered deep lacerations to the back of his head, said Campbell, who described the transient as a victim of “blunt force head trauma.” – John F. Muller
Jacquie Banks
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